Page 80 of Mischief Mayhem
After Dad and Aris had been taken into custody, the MC had elected Bear and KC to replace them. Hollywood had been named the new road captain, at least until Dad could get out to deal with this himself. But I knew my brother, and I knew what my dad meant by making sure he kept his head on straight.
While Bear had inherited the cool and collected side of our mother’s personality, he had also inherited the Montgomery temper. It took a lot to get my brother pissed off, but once he hit that limit, he’d been known to go on a rampage that only KC, me, or my dad could calm. If he wasn’t careful about this next move with Julia Caputi, the entire house of cards could come crumbling down around him.
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” I held a hand up to the glass, blinking back tears when Dad did the same on the other side.
“I love you, kiddo,” he said.
“Love you, too.” I begrudgingly hung up the phone and left him there, praying he held out until the next time I could see him.
Hollywood was waiting for me out in the parking lot. It was a nice day, so we’d driven his bike up here, and now he leaned up against it while he smoked a cigarette, looking like some contemporary James Dean. Heat snaked into my lower gut, and I grinned as I leaned up to wrap my arms around his neck.
“How’s Pops?” He stabbed the butt into the ashtray on top of a trash can and kissed me, pressing his forehead against mine.
“Pissed off and plotting.” I hated seeing him in the pen, but until this shit with Detective Jordan got worked out, I didn’t know how we’d get him out of it.
“So, the usual.” Hollywood kissed me again before handing me my helmet so I could tug it over my head and climb on the back of his bike. He put the key in the ignition and kicked it to life, sitting back so I could circle my arms around him before taking off.
I’d grown up in an MC and all my brothers were bikers, so I’d been riding on the back of these monstrosities since I was a child. But nothing and no one made me feel as safe as I did when I was on the back of his bike, holding onto him.
If anyone had asked me a year ago whether I’d ever say that about Hollywood, of all people, I would have laughed in their face. Hollywood and I were seemingly opposites in just about every way. Where he had a smile for everyone and a joke poised on his tongue at any given moment, I’d much rather cut them down to size with the truth. I used to think it wasn’t a good day unless I’d made someone cry. Now, I understood how we brought out the better side of each other. I made him give a shit about himself, and he reminded me that not all people were idiots, that being authentic didn’t necessarily mean speaking my mind all the time.
He protected me, and in many ways, I protected him. I trusted him, and that was more than I could say about anyone else, save for my brothers. We needed each other more than either of us would admit.
I thought about Ru’s question all those weeks ago.
“Do you believe in soulmates?”
At the time, I didn’t know. I’d said yes because I wanted to believe. Now, I did. Perhaps it was a blood bond that brought me and him together, created when we were in high school and sealed when he’d risked his life for me. Perhaps it was our spirits that had recognized their twin in one another. Whatever it was, Hollywood was it for me. That was all I needed to know to finally be optimistic about my future here and my family’s place in it.
28
HOLLYWOOD
“Whew,” Leo said, shaking his head as I came to visit him for the first time since everything went down. “I must tell you, my friend. I was happy to hear you’d made it out alive.”
I snorted and shook my head. “Don’t fuck with me. You’d be happy if she put a bullet in all our heads.”
Leo shrugged and fiddled with a cuff link on his collared shirt. “Perhaps most of your brothers, but not you. You’re one of the ones worth saving.”
“Don’t flatter me,” I said, and he grinned in that friendly, charismatic way that made me want to forget the bad history between our families. The jury was still out on whether we could actually trust him.
In the days since Gabriella had attacked, Julia had been by to catch up with her brother and bring him some of his own amenities. Their interactions were still monitored by Bear just in case they decided to swing back to supporting their dear ole auntie. But I’d seen what Gabriella had done to Julia, what she had allowed to happen to her own niece. If I were Leo, I’d want Gabriella’s head on a spike, so I was inclined to think he was on our side. Julia hadn’t been back to her family’s estate, but if our plan was going to work, she’d have to be even more clandestine than she was before. She couldn’t stage a successful coup from the outside.
Clad in expensive trousers and designer shoes, Leo looked every bit the Caputi mobster he’d been raised to be. If I hadn’t spent the better part of the last three months with him, I wouldn’t believe he’d come around. But I’d seen him at his most vulnerable, and if there were one Caputi I could tolerate, it would be him.
“I never thanked you for this,” Leo said, turning to face me while he shucked his jacket over his shoulders. “For helping me, for healing me.”
“It wasn’t like I had much of a choice.” I crossed my arms, hiding a wince when my abused cock rubbed against my boxers. V had taken it out on me last night, making me come over and over again until I sobbed and begged for mercy. I could barely walk this morning.
“Doesn’t matter why you did it.” Leo let out a low, sardonic laugh and cupped my cheek, the cool metal of his rings brushing against my jawline. “You have me in your debt.”
“Just don’t fuck us over, okay?” I straightened and nodded toward the back door. “Bear is going to agree to marry Julia, and once we’re family, that changes things, but . . .” I cleared my throat and shook my head. “Most of the MC is waiting for you to betray us.”
Leo pursed his lips and narrowed his dark eyes. “Most of the support my sister has managed to secure has similar concerns about the Roses.”
“Well, I guess we both need to be vulnerable and trust each other, don’t we?” I held out my hand for him to shake, and he grinned before taking it in his own.
“My aunt has overstepped for the last time,” Leo said. “I won’t have her treat my sister like this any longer, and as you said, I am tired of this war. It was started by people who aren’t even players on the chessboard any longer.”